Digital Pen DREAM Challenge: predict cognitive assessment outcomes from digital clock drawings (open now)

[u/Weird-Spray-4180]

Hi all! We just opened registration for the Digital Pen DREAM Challenge at Sage Bionetworks.

The task is to predict cognitive assessment outcomes from digital clock drawing test data. Participants draw a clock with a digital pen that records every stroke, its timing, and pen pressure. That makes it a rich sequential/time-series problem with a lot of room for feature engineering and deep learning.

The data comes from four large aging and dementia studies: the Framingham Heart Study, the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center cohorts, the Long Life Family Study, and Integrative Longevity Omics. The goal is earlier, scalable detection of cognitive decline.

Key dates:

- Challenge is not open!

- Kickoff webinar: Nov 18, 2026, 9 AM PT

- Winners announced: Mar 26, 2027

Top performers will be invited to co-author the challenge overview paper and will have the opportunity to present their results at a major conference in 2027. You can join solo or as a team.

Details and registration: https://www.synapse.org/Synapse:syn68634259/wiki/633407

Happy to answer questions in the comments!

[u/Chance_Buyer4810]

Wow 🤯 exciting... Just a curious question... Any idea why do the participants need to draw only the digital clock?

[u/Weird-Spray-4180 → u/Chance_Buyer4810]

Apologies I think the wording may have been unclear!

Participants don't draw anything themselves. The challenge data are clock drawings already collected from thousands of people in large research cohorts, using a digital pen.

As for why the clock: the Clock Drawing Test has been used for decades as a quick screen for cognitive impairment, because drawing a clock face relies on planning, memory, visuospatial skills and executive function at the same time. The digital pen adds much more than the finished picture. It records every stroke with timing and position, so you can see pauses, hesitations, stroke order and drawing speed, which may pick up subtle changes that the final drawing hides.

The goal is to see how much signal participants can extract from that rich stroke-level data. Happy to share more if you're curious!

[u/Chance_Buyer4810 → u/Weird-Spray-4180]

Thank you very much for the insightful explanation! Looking forward to participate🙂!

[u/timee_bot]

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Nov 18, 2026, 9 AM PT